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Missing kangaroo found safe, captured overnight in Jupiter Farms

Posted at 4:45 AM, Sep 27, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-27 15:17:27-04

A kangaroo that went missing from his Jupiter Farms home earlier this week was found safe overnight.

The 4-foot kangaroo named Storm escaped from a property in northern Palm Beach County.

Florida Fish and Wildlife officials and neighbors have been canvassing the area for days in search of the missing marsupial.

There was one sighting Tuesday morning and then finally neighbors Valerie Gentile and Graham Healy  went out on night watch Wednesday night.

They said after only about 10 minutes into their search, they spotted Storm near a home.

“He was sitting in front of a mailbox, sitting right in front of us, on the patch of grass, just minding his own business, no one was bothering him,” said Gentile and Healy.  “He was calm for a couple of minutes and then bounced to the other side of the street, to a house right here so we surrounded the house and I called the owner."

“It was a lot of long nights, a lot of long days but we finally found him and thank you God for bringing him back safe,” said Valerie Gentile.

They called the kangaroo owner, Eric Westergard, who came over to help coax him back.

"As soon as he heard Eric, he froze in place and then all of a sudden Eric just grabbed him and that was it and carried him like a little baby," said Gentile.

“It’s been a wild ride the past couple of days, we all kind of said to ourselves tonight was going to be the night and these guys came together,” said Westergard said.

Westergard said he arrived and used food to lure him and take him back home around 1:10 a.m. Thursday.

"I hooted and hollered when we found him. I'm happy now. He's happy now.  I know he's back in the cage and Avalanche's mate, you know, she saw him immediately and came over to the cage. She came to take a look at him, so we just kind of left them out back to get reacquainted again, but all is good," said Westergard.

Storm is one of seven kangaroos the owner legally owns here at his home.